Hillary Clinton is still the way to bet for November.
Just ask your local bookie. Heíll give you
very attractive odds for putting a dollar on the
Donald.

But if youíre a party chief you would rather not put
up a candidate, even an early betting favorite, who
is regarded by nearly everyone as a crook, a cheat, a
fraud, and somebody who nobody, but nobody, likes.

Hillary is suddenly campaigning in familiar circumstances,
up to her neck in muddy water and toxic
debris, the inevitable nominee once more who canít
win for losing.
The Democrats
should
be measuring
her head for
the crown but
the jeweler is
all out of rhinestones. She was supposed to be so far
ahead of Donald Trump by now that the pollsters and
the bookies would be closing the book.
Instead, Rasmussen Reports, the most reliable
pollster over the past few cycles, shows the Donald
up 5 points, 3 more than a fortnight ago.

Itís still early
but senior Democrats are trying to choke back panic,
and the Harold Stassen Memorial Home for Inevitable
Nominees is keeping a bed warm for her.

Only yesterday the press and tube were awash in
obituaries for the Grand Old Party, chortling that the
Trump phenomenon had finished off the Republicans
for a generation and that Hillary, for all her fits, starts
and coughing fits, was on her way back to the White
House and taking her wayward husband with her.
It seemed like old times were at hand. Now Donald
Trump is talking about his list of prospective nominees,
conservatives all, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Only yesterday the Trump campaign was mocked
for his campaign rallies, often marred by fist-fights and
screaming matches. Now, itís the Donald who stands
above the grit and bluster, busy with his list of judges.
Itís the Democrats who are screeching, screaming and
banging each other over the head with signs and banners
on a stick.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, one of Hillaryís most faithful campaign
surrogates, was all but booed off the stage at a party
rally in Las Vegas and insists that she was frightened to
within a half-inch of her life, and the word got out. What
happens in Las Vegas no longer stays in Las Vegas.

Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, the
other half of the
California twins,
is a Hillary surrogate,
too, and
the good news
for Hillary is
that she knows
how to stop the
bleeding and
restore Hillary
to fighting
mode against
a Republican:
Bernie should
drop out. Disarray
only hurts
Hillary. "Thatís
what Donald
Trump should
want, a schism
in our party," she says. "Itís the responsibility particularly
of [Bernie] to see that that does not happen."

The bad news for Democrats is that Bernie isnít buying.
He promises to take the fight all the way to Philadelphia
and the convention floor. He may not dislodge
Hillary from her catbird seat, but the prospect of a
little pushing, shoving and cat-calling on the convention
floor might panic enough super-delegates, who are
not bound to any candidate, to give Bernie a shot at the
prize. The suspense of a convention roll call would be
a ratings sensation.

The really bad news is that the populism that divides
both parties this season is shared by both Bernie
Sanders and Donald Trump and their followers. It might
be enough to transfer the Berniemania in the Democratic
ranks to the Donald when the real campaign
begins after the party conventions are done.

"If it was only right-wing populism, I donít think
this race would be close," Bruce Cain, a Stanford professor
who reflects the concerns of the San Francisco
Democrats, tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "The
big question mark is where the Bernie [liberals] go.
Are they going to stay home? Are they going to vote
in high numbers? Where are the young voters going to
go? What level of turnout will you get from the minority
voters? Those will all take a lot of work on Hillary
Clintonís part."

The public-opinion polls show that Hillary is just
about as unlikable among millennials and Hispanics as
she is among the rest of us. Enthusiasm counts, even
among blacks who are counted on by Democrats to
vote for her all but unanimously. Donald Trump cuts
that percentage significantly in the early polls. "When
asked randomly on the street or in focus groups who
they are voting for," says Ford OíConnell, a Republican
analyst, "people respond, ĎI like Trump,í or ĎI hate
Trump.í I donít hear anyone saying, ĎIím pulling the
lever for Hillary because she just gets it going for me.í "